We
continue the publication of the old records. Our closing thought in the last
paper was that the Court adjourned to meet in the next session in June
following. In this we were in error, as the adjournment was only for that day.
The next day the work of the Court was completed for three more months.

“Thursday,
March 18, 1802, Court met according to adjournment. Members present: viz. Peter
Turney, Elmore Douglass, Charles Kavanaugh, William Kavanaugh, and John
Lancaster, Esquire.” These five men composed about one third of the County’s
magistrates, and we still wonder how many were required to constitute a quorum.
Comment has been offered already concerning each of the above-named gentlemen.

“Venire
Facias for the Superior Court: Charles Kavanaugh, Peter Turney, James Wright,
James Ballou.” Three men were thus appointed for jury duty, we suppose,
although we do not know much about the Superior Court of that day and time.
Comment has already been offered concerning Kavanaugh, Turney and Ballou. We do
not know anything scarcely about James Wright, except that he appears a little
later in the history of Smith County as the owner of a large number of slaves,
and was a man of distinction and wealth for his day and time. Ballou was a
brother of our great-great-grandfather, Leonard Ballou. Kavanaugh was from the
present south side of Smith County, and the other tree lived in the vicinity of
Dixon Springs.

“Ordered
that the inventory account of the estate of John Lancaster, deceased, be
received, and ordered to record.” We have no idea as to who John Lancaster was,
but suppose he was the ancestor of the present Lancaster family in Smith
County.

“Isham
Beasley exhibited his stock mark, being a crop and a half-crop in the left ear,
and a half-crop in the right. Ordered to be recorded.” Isham Beasley was a
soldier of the American Revolution and married Polly Andrews. He and his wife
appear to have lived first in Smith County in Beasely’s Bend, back of the
present Riddleton. Later, he bought many acres of land in Sullivan’s Bend,
built a fine country estate there and became on to the richest men in Smith
County. He left a very large number of sons and daughter, 16 in number, we
believe. His will is still on file in the office of the County Court Clerk at
Carthage, and makes settlement of his estate which embraced perhaps a hundred
Negro slaves, and thousands of acres of land. Just why he gave part of his
heirs, “Twenty-five dollars, no more or no less,” and others large number of
slave and broad acres of land, we do not know. Perhaps he felt that he had
already done for those who were given the small amount, all that he had the
right to expect of their father. All Beasleys of this section are descended
form Isham and Polly.

“James
Wright exhibited his stock mark, being a crop and half-crop in each ear, under
in the right ear and over in the left. Brand O. Ordered to be recorded.” This
is the same man above-referred to, without doubt. The fact that he had a brand
for his cattle and horses showed that he was the owner of perhaps large numbers
of these animals.

“Charles
Kavanaugh exhibited his stock mark, being a crop and a slit in the right ear,
and a crop and underkeel in the left. Ordered to be recorded.” Kavanaugh was a
resident of what is now the south side of the county, from the best information
that we have. We suppose the “underkeel” and overkeel” and “underbit” and
“overbit,” terms used in marking hogs and sheep about the ears, are clear to
some of our readers. We admit that we do not know very much about the terms.

“James
Ballou exhibited his stock mark, being a crop and two slits in the right ear,
and a crop off the left; band brand JB. Ordered to be recorded.” Our old
great-great-great uncle lived on Dixon’s Creek, just below the present brick
church house. He was probably a man of considerable property for his day and
time. So far as we can learn he had no sons and only one daughter, Susan, who
became the wife of Arch DeBow, a resident of Wilson County. One child, we do
not know whether son or daughter, was born to Arch and Susan, the child
marrying a Norris on reaching adult life. James Ballou was first married to a
Miss Shelton. After her death, he married a Miss Shields. It is possible that
we are in error in our view that only one child, a daughter, was born to James
Ballou. He had a nephew, James Ballou, son of Leonard Ballou and his wife, Mary
Metcalf. This second James Ballou was born June 2, 1802, and later married a
Key. The children of this marriage were: Leonard, Mary, who married a Brockett;
James, went to Illinois; Martha, a cripple, who taught school 75 years ago or
more; and Dick Ballou.

“William
Kavanaugh exhibited his stock mark, being a crop and an underkeel in the left
ear, and a half-crop in the right ear. Ordered to be recorded.” We presume that
William and Charles Kavanaugh, both members of the old Court, were brothers,
although we have no definite proof thereof.

“Ordered
that Moses Fiske, Peter Turney and Garrett Fitzgerald, or any two of them, be
authorized to ‘compleat’ a settlement with the administrators and the
adminstratrix of the estate of William Young, deceased and such settlement,
when ‘compleated’ to return into Court with the vouchers received relative
thereto.” Fiske was a very prominent citizen of the county 150 years ago, and
was the ancestor of the late Bill Fiske, who operated the Clay County paper,
“Bill Fiske’s Bugle,” for many years. Peter Turney was the grandfather of the
Peter Turney, who became Governor of the State at a much later date. Garrett
Fitzgerald was another early and prominent citizen, and we are almost sure that
he was the ancestor of the present Fitzgerald family in Clay County, two
members of the family living in Lafayette, Mrs. Annie Fitzgerald Butler and
Frank Fitzgerald. We suppose that William Young was(1) perhaps the ancestor of
the present Young family at Dixon Springs. Readers will note that the word,
“Compleat,” is incorrect.

“Bill of
‘sail,’ Samuel Parker to William White, being certified by Nathaniel Lane,
Clerk of Wake County; and attested by two of the Justices of the Peace for the
same (county), as having been acknowledged before them. Ordered to be
recorded.” The word “sail,” was another wrong spelling, sale being intended. We
do not know what was involved in the sale, but it was made in Wake County,
North Carolina, which county is in the central part of the State, contains 841
square miles and also the capital of the State, Raleigh. Samuel Parker is one
of the very first members of a family that became very numerous and influential
in the later history of Smith County. William White was also a member of a very
early family in this part of Tennessee. One member of the family, Elder Joshua
White, was one of the number that helped to form Dixon’s Creek Baptist church,
the first organized in Smith County. We have the following sketch of this
pioneer minister: “Elder White was first a member of the Camden church, Camden
County, North Carolina. He was ordained to the ministry in this church. In the
early nineties of the eighteenth century, he moved into the neighborhood of
Fishing Creek church, Halifax County, North Carolina, and cast his membership
with this church and became their pastor. He remained pastor of the church for
some time, when he, perhaps as early as 1795, moved to Tennessee, settling most
probably on Red River, in Robertson County. He was one of the noted figures
among the ministry of this section, and did much in gathering the early
churches of Middle Tennessee. He was one of the Presbytery which constituted
Dixon’s Creek church, in 1800.”

“Ordered
that the report of a road from John Looney’s to Chas. Kavanaugh’s be received
and that Nathaniel Farrer and William Madin be appointed to open and keep same
in repair, each overseer to meet at Richard Cantrill’s and that John Looney,
Esquire, furnish them with a list of hands.” This road was in what is now the
south side of Smith County, so far as we can judge. Nathaniel Farren is another
of whom we know nothing, and so are Richard Cantrill and William Madin.

“John
Douglass, Esquire, protests against the jail of Smith County, and the Court
ordered it to be recorded.” John Douglass was a member of one of the most noted
early families in Middle Tennessee, the Douglasses of Sumner County being part
of the same family. The jail, we suppose, was of log construction, and we have
no idea where this“protested jail”
was. The Court was meeting here and there, largely at Dixon Springs. So we may
be justified in saying we suppose it was located at Dixon Springs, as no Court
had been held at the present Carthage in 1802. The Court ordered “it to be
recorded, the protest, and not the jail.

We are
glad to find that early citizens of Smith County were humane and believed in(2)
showing mercy toward those unfortunate enough to have to go to jail. Readers
should recall that 1802 was not far removed in point of time from the old
stocks and other forms of brutal punishment meted out in Virginia and other
older States.